Hey guys, I'm your host Tara A. Devlin, and welcome to this week's episode of Kowabana,

true Japanese scary stories from around the internet. My latest book, Coabana Volume 13, is now out. Collecting

even more of your favorite stories from the show, you can find terrifying ghosts, cruel

curses, haunted buildings, weird monsters, and much, much more. You can find that on Amazon

right now, and help support the show at the same time.

This week, we're looking at some stories on both land and sea of encounters with things that are,

quite frankly, just a little too bizarre to fully understand.

First up, a young boy explores an abandoned shrine in the mountains and finds something odd up there. What exactly is it?

Find out in Shrine Yolkai.

I don't really believe in ghosts, but I'm certain that Yolkai exist.

Throughout my life, I've seen a Yolkai twice, and I'd like to tell you about one of those times.

I think I was in the fifth grade at the time. My grandfather passed away from cancer, so we rushed back to the countryside

of the Tohoku region. The funeral went as planned, and as the adults were clearing stuff

up, they told me to go for a walk. I decided to look around the mountain behind my grandparents'

house. I'd climbed this mountain numerous times before,

so I knew my way around and wouldn't get lost.

I looked around here and there all by myself.

I must have been walking for about 30 minutes

when I saw a shrine gate in the distance.

Come to think of it,

I always used to look out the car window at all the

shrine gates on the mountain. Why are there so many shrines on that mountain? I thought to myself

...